The ones with the fat white border and thin blue line aren’t dated but do have a manufacturer’s mark at the bottom center….in this case “McMath-Axilrod, Dallas”. This mark is sometimes abbreviated to “Mc-AX”. Other pump plates of this same design are marked “Texlite” or “Texlite-Dallas”. These signs were used mostly in the southwestern states, the old marketing territory of Magnolia Petroleum.

The ones with the black border don’t have a manufacturer’s mark or date, but some have the word “gasoline” at the bottom. This style also includes the pump plate referred to as the “dropped-leg” version, the Mobilgas Special with the rear legs covered by the “A” in Mobilgas. These black-bordered signs were used on the west coast, in the old marketing territory of General Petroleum.

Like everything else in life, there aren’t many absolutes. You CAN find old original pump plates that aren’t as described above, like this white-border version with no manufacturer’s mark. However, if the sign is marked “Licensed by Mobil Oil” you can be 100% certain it’s a reproduction!!!

Here’s a look at my “shield wall”……there are a lot of different ones to collect, and quite a few others not shown here that I’d like to add to the collection.

That's it for this installment.....I'm off to Peotone. More to come on Monday. Feel free to overload the system with pictures over the weekend!!!

------------------Richard Weir"Pegasus"Hillsboro, Ohio

Richard WeirCorinth, Texas

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The two most widely known Mobil trademarks are the red Pegasus and the Gargoyle. Both were first used by Vacuum Oil Company. Originally the Pegasus image was white rather than red, and was first used by Vacuum Oil South Africa in 1911. It was later colored red by the company affiliate in Japan. Below is a look at how Pegasus changed over the years…….

The Gargoyle image was more widely used by Vacuum Oil in the U.S. and Europe. The dictionary describes a gargoyle as “a spout in the form of a grotesque human or animal figure projecting from a roof gutter to throw rainwater clear of a building”. I’m not sure how that fits with a petroleum product used for lubrication…..but it does rhyme with “oil” and no one else was using it, so why not? Like the Pegasus, the first Gargoyle image was colored white rather than red. Here are pictures of two Gargoyle images that were used……if you know of others or have a Gargoyle progression like the one shown above for Pegasus, please share it with us!!

Richard great Mobil pump plates .......What a collection.The information is terrific and to think theres more.Vacuum tin sign from Australia neat graphic of a visible pump.This sign was found tacked to a wall covering a hole 3 inches of the sign were cut off.

It wasn’t just Pegasus and Gargoyle images, however. Mobil companies used a number of mythical and real “critter” images over the years. Wasn’t it that famous philosopher Winnie the Pooh who said “Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my”? Well Mobil’s been there, done that……as shown below:

This is one of my favorite MOBIL signs its DSP both sides grade 9+/- the shelving is great.We think this sign was 1 of 3 different that were attached and toured the country introducing Mobil Oil Special.The next photo shows more Mobil signs and well lookey here..... that full feather critter showed up.Wadhams transitional sign.

As mentioned previously, the most widely used Mobil shield had five points and was basically square (as wide as it is tall). That wasn’t always the case. Scroll back up to the last post by Kysoilman…..look closely at the second image…..specifically the large red “Mobilubrication sign at the top. It’s in the shape of a five-point shield, except it’s much wider than it is tall. Here’s a few more examples of the shield where the basic 5-point shield shape was used but the details and dimensions are somewhat different.